Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Men's health
Article Date: 07 Apr 2011 - 16:00 PDT
email to a friend � 
printer friendly � 
opinions � 
Current Article Ratings:
| Patient / Public: |  | |
| Healthcare Prof: | |
Couples are put off using the male pill as contraception because many women feel their partners would forget to take it, and some men feel it would challenge their masculinity, research says.
Dr Susan Walker told the British Sociological Association annual conference in London today that only 50 per cent of the 134 women and 54 men she surveyed said they would use the contraceptive method when it came on the market. Nineteen per cent said that they definitely would not use a male pill, while 31 per cent were unsure.
Dr Walker, Senior Lecturer in Sexual Health at Anglia Ruskin University, found that 52 per cent of the women surveyed were concerned that their partners would forget to take it.
Only 17 per cent of the men surveyed thought that men would forget to take a male pill daily, suggesting that men had greater confidence than their partners in their own ability to remember.
Dr Walker said: "Whilst the female interviewees loved and trusted their male partners some of them simply felt that men are, as a gender, more forgetful."
In in-depth interviews with some of those surveyed, one woman told her: "I think that women are better at remembering these things. Women tend to worry more about the fact that they could potentially get pregnant."
Dr Walker also found that about one in six of the men interviewed felt that taking a contraceptive pill was an activity that was culturally associated with women and which therefore might make them feel less masculine.
One man told her: "The manly image probably does lend itself to a reluctance to take something like a male oral contraceptive pill."
Dr Walker said: "I had expected men to be concerned about the biological effects of a male pill. But what I found was that the cultural association between taking the pill and femininity was also a concern. Somehow taking the pill was not seen as something which conveyed a manly image".
However many of the interviewees also thought that the male pill would be a more mature and responsible way of practising masculinity and were in favour of using it.
The male contraceptive pill is not at present on the market - it is at the trial stage, and has been successfully used with human volunteers. The World Health Organisation has stated its backing for its development.
Dr Walker carried out the survey in the East of England and interviewed in-depth 34 of the 188 surveyed. All those surveyed were using other forms of contraception at the time of the survey.
Source
British Sociological Association
| Please rate this article: (Hover over the stars then click to rate) | Patient / Public: | or | Health Professional: |
Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.
Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.
If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.
All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)
Contact Our News Editors
For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.
Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:
Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions
MediLexicon International Ltd
Bexhill-on-Sea, UK
MediLexicon International Ltd � 2004-2011 All rights reserved.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/221657.php
magazine health fitness health magazine for women women health services women and mental health issues health care for women
No comments:
Post a Comment